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About adabbas

When I've done my CCNA exam in late 2003, I did not know that there are exam dumps or CBTs... I was fresh out of college where I took some Networking courses and Aced them, it took me two to three months reading the books, and practicing on network simulator.
While doing the exam, I was not sure that I was going to pass. Actually, at some point near the end, I was just going through the questions in hope that I will remember some of them when I repeat the exam because I felt I will sure fail.
Surprise!!! I’ve passed that day, I did not bother to check the score. Few years later I’ve found my original score to discover that I got 900+ mark that day. A pass is a pass, a high mark is rarely important.
However, until this day I still regret not taking an actual course where I get the chance to practice stuff on am actual router and actual switch, it would have been an enjoyable thing to do. Of course since then, and although I work in server virtualization now and not focused on Cisco networking, I got the chance to configure few simple things on cisco gear and it is always a fun thing to do.
My point is, if the academy will give you a chance to practice labs on real hardware then that is the most important thing. Only school nerds should care about high marks, it does not make any difference in real life.

Do you really think that the 120$ you will be paying for that one more exam does mean much to a big business like Cisco??
Yes it is a big business, very big indeed… and they make in profit about 50% of the price of the stuff they sell… that is about 500$ for every 1000$ router they sell. It is more important to them to have as many certified technicians in the marker as possible because that will mean more people will be baying their products.
However, it is equally if not more important for them to make sure that those certified technicians are up to it by being able to deliver superior service to their customers. And that is why the quality of the certification program is very important.
Now we should keep in mind that the CCNA Voice was introduced to fill a request made from the certification community. I’ve read about it many years ago on few forums and blogs, there were many wishing for a an introductory voice certificate that helps technicians get into the field ASAP without going through the 5 CCVP exam, a certificate that will help bridge the gap for the networking experience or Telco experience and basic knowledge the CCVP needs.
Try to see the big picture, and remember that most of the 120$ you will pay for that exam will go to the test provider like vue and prometric.

IF you are doing TUC as your last exam to become CCVP then there is no need to learn any new theory for this exam as you should have already covered it all in the past 4 exams.
You only need to do two things:
Read the quick reference sheets (they are more than enough)
And do a lot of practice on tracing logs.
And you will sure pass it

What is wrong with that??? Almost all of our production servers are running on virtual machines. And we are a 4000-employees enterprise. Virtualization is the wave of the present, it is no longer the wave of the future.
Not a problem at all but Microsoft has too many considerations when hosting Active Directory domain controller in virtual hosting environments. One has to take care of these considerations while hosting ADS.
hxxp://support.microsoft.com/kb/888794
Thanks a lot, those hints will be very helpful

What is wrong with that??? Almost all of our production servers are running on virtual machines. And we are a 4000-employees enterprise. Virtualization is the wave of the present, it is no longer the wave of the future.

I've passed JNCIA-EX with 100%... Very easy exam... I've watched their free online training which took a lot more than 6 hours!!! I wonder why do they say 90 minutes. I've read the student Guide (around 500 pages in three days) and took the exam. And took a look about some of their other material about EX switches online. In total less than a week's work.
The concepts are very straight forward and already covered in CCNA... and syntax is even more logical than Cisco; one can answer most of the questions by common sense without even studying as the JUNOS is very easy to understand and handle.

My friend here (http://www.sadikhov.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=133781) wants IP phones in the office, and Gigabite LAN to all workstations (he has a Multimedia design company and his employees are exchanging files with sizes in many Megabytes all the time. Since Gigabit phones are relatively expensive I find myself (against everything I believe in) forced to install two LANs; one 24 port Gigabit LAN for the designers and the File Servers, and another 48 port Fastethernet port switch to connect the APs, the receptionist, the accountant.. etc and all the IP phones in the office!!!
The thought of two LAN cables connecting each of the 19 designers offices made me sick for a while; I was thinking about the concept of converged data and voice network. I used to really hate the people that install a separate router and WAN link for voice, and now I find myself installing a complete separate LAN for voice ... but soon enough I've justified it to my self by considering the 2nd LAN cable as a backup for the 1st
Anyway, I think finding some good USB Handsets or convincing my friend to use softphones will cut some of the waste and and extra costs.
The moral of the story is achieving a true converged network is not always easily achievable, at least not economically.
PS: Sorry I know that my comment is somehow irrelevant.

Thanks a lot for everybody's suggestion, it helped me files the gaps in my options with model numbers. now I just need to translate those model numbers into prices in the local market. After that I can make the right choice. It seems that it will be either a full Asterisk solution with FXO (maybe Digium) PCI cards or an Asterisk Virtual server using a Cisco voice router as its gateway (I will be needing a good router anyway for WAN links)

There is no need for DID... Currently all calls are being recived at 2 lines by the "reception lady" and she routes the calls to one of 5 extentions all over the office.
I aim to give her an "attendant console" software or hardware to make her life easier, and give everybody in the office his own extension... Maybe later on an Auto-atendant can be used, but I do not want them to feel way too many changes at once... but for sure I will not be asking for a range of numbers from the Teleco; way too much cost and there is no real need for it, 2 more lines later on should be enough for thier needs.

Thanks ArronG and kironline for your input:
It seems that I have the following options:
1-Do it safe and get the Cisco UC500 for around $2400: about double the budget but maybe worth the peace of mind. I will check how much will it cost me to buy it locally.
2-Get a used 2800 or 1760 through eBay: I do not really like this option unless I somehow can trust the person that will send the stuff to me... I live in Jordan hence shipping heavy stuff from the US/Europe will be a bit costly and will take some time. Besides, I do not like to take such a risk with my friend's money.
3-The 3rd option is to convert to the dark side, and try one of the many Free IP-PBX systems out there (most of them are Linux based) as I already know some Red hat but need to practice it. It will be a great chance for me to learn new skills (Open Source IP-PBXs) that could earn me good money if I work as a freelancer in addition to my stable job a 300$ investment in some FXO PCI card or a SIP VoIP gateway is not much compared to the potential gains
I am still open for more suggestions

Thanks ArronG,
It may be just the thing I need, but I am not sure that it is sold within the budget I have for this project... Do you have an idea about how much it costs?
I was hoping to invest about 1500$ in hardware and licensing (excluding the phones). Maybe my estimates are unreasonable, but since it can be done cheaper with open source solutions then it would be hard for me to make my friend pay much more just to get a Cisco branded system.

Thanks kironline for your reply,
what type of pstn line do you have right now?
Currently he is using two analog phone lines provided by the local teleco, they are connected to some panansonix PBX which give service to about 6 phones including the one used by the reception young lady. that is why I need the router to have two FXO ports (no need now or later for T1 or ISDN)
- what phones do you plan to buy (Cisco/noncisco, if Cisco what model?), especially when you are planning to do Extension Mobility
not fixied yet, but Linksys SIP phones seems to be good choice for the price... even if they do not support Extension Mobility.... I am trying to convince him to consider using softphones with wired or wireless headsets, but he seems to be convinced that he should use real hardware phones.
I presume secretary is the reception (lovely reception lady ), so you might have to consider using Cisco attendant console and use a ip phone like 7960/7971 for more lines
Cisco attendant console or something like it from some other provider is a must have for this setup, but I have few qustions about that:
Will it work with CME??
Is it better to be software or hardware based?
Did somebody try the Linksys attendant console??
What is the best one to use Asterisk/Trixbox ?
Phone users should be able to log in and out off their phones
- you will also have to think about your budget for the voip setup, you will have to buy CME license, device licenses, extension mobility...
Maybe I can ignore that if it will cost mush extra.
Do you intend to use a separate router for WAN?
If got a Cisco router to function as the gateway to the PSTN (by using FXO ports), then I will also use it as my WAN router (It does not need to be support VPN as I can deploy that using Windows Servers easily). But this router must have at least two WAN Ethernet ports for load balancing and fault tolerance (each etherner will be connected to an ADSL modem). If I forget about Cisco as gateway to the PSTN and get some FXO PCI card to install it on a PC or use some linksys product then I will most likely not get a Cisco router at all.
Can these Linksys switches do vlans and qos stuff ???
Many of them do, some of them are gigabit and some of them can even take fiber!! The SRW2024 and the SRW248G4 (which I will be using) can support up to 256 VLANs, and seems to have many nice Qos stuff.